Van de Schoot Evert, Lonnoy Marine, Laroy Ludovic, Wesselingh Renate A, Van Dyck Hans
Earth & Life Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Sci Rep. 2025 May 24;15(1):18056. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-02407-y.
Biodiversity is negatively affected by light pollution, caused by artificial light at night (ALAN). Light-emitting diodes facilitate new lighting technologies to mediate the negative effects of ALAN, such as dynamic ALAN where light intensity can be adjusted to traffic density. Organisms living in highly light-polluted areas may show adaptations to mitigate the negative effects of ALAN. In a split-brood rearing experiment, larvae of two moth species (Ochropleura plecta and Agrotis exclamationis) originating from low-medium and high-medium skyglow populations were grown under either continuous ALAN, dynamic ALAN or control-dark conditions. We tested for ALAN effects on larval mortality, feeding behaviour, development and body mass, and whether effects depended on skyglow levels in the population of origin. Contrary to previous studies, we found either no or positive effects of ALAN on larval development, with similar or stronger effects of dynamic ALAN compared to continuous ALAN. For A. exclamationis, we showed evidence for faster development, increased growth rate and higher body mass under ALAN. This could reduce larval exposure to parasites and increase fecundity. We found no evidence for evolutionary responses in low-medium or high-medium skyglow larvae. Our results show that ALAN does not affect larval development the same way in all species.
生物多样性受到夜间人工照明（ALAN）造成的光污染的负面影响。发光二极管促进了新的照明技术来调节ALAN的负面影响，比如动态ALAN，其光强度可根据交通密度进行调整。生活在光污染严重地区的生物可能会表现出适应性以减轻ALAN的负面影响。在一项分窝饲养实验中，将源自低-中、高-中天空辉光种群的两种蛾类幼虫（赭夜蛾和惊夜蛾）分别置于持续ALAN、动态ALAN或对照-黑暗条件下饲养。我们测试了ALAN对幼虫死亡率、取食行为、发育和体重的影响，以及这些影响是否取决于幼虫起源种群的天空辉光水平。与之前的研究相反，我们发现ALAN对幼虫发育要么没有影响，要么有积极影响，与持续ALAN相比，动态ALAN的影响相似或更强。对于惊夜蛾，我们发现有证据表明在ALAN条件下其发育更快、生长速率增加且体重更高。这可能会减少幼虫接触寄生虫的机会并提高繁殖力。我们没有发现低-中或高-中天空辉光幼虫存在进化反应的证据。我们的结果表明，ALAN对所有物种幼虫发育的影响并非相同。
